[Care at the patient's bedside. Non-invasive bioethics].

This paper aims at describing the circumstances of the birth of Bioethics. In the first section, the paper points out some historical data supporting the widely diffused opinion according to which Bioethics started in the USA at the beginning of the '70s. In the second section, one of the most important factors in the birth of Bioethics is discussed: namely, the changes in medical enterprise and health care ethics. In the third section the impact of Bioethics on clinical medicine at the bedside is discusses, and, in the last section, one of the most important practical application of bioethical reflection is presented: the creation of Hospital Ethics Committees.